The more the HBC grew, the less time I had to market marketing and design services. Also, in total fairness, I became tired of being a business coach who teaches coaches how to teach coaches how to become coaches.

I have been freelancing since I was 19, doing marketing and PR for record labels, or working in digital editorial – therefore, freelancing does not sound like complete news to me. I recently stopped freelancing and focused mainly on the HBC (with PT on the side), but I learnt a lot from my experiments.

The pros of freelancing

Freelancing allows people to take on different projects using different skills they may have developed over the years.

Freelancing allows you to work with people from different fields, as long as you focus on your main core skills.

You can define the workload you want to take on, depending on how strenuous other projects are at a certain time.

By freelancing via a website, it’s much easier to browse projects, communicate with clients, and deal with payments.

Objection alert: you will get more competition by using a ‘freelancer marketplace’. However, if you use a few tactics I am outlining below, you’ll find it much easier to stand out from the crowd.

My golden rules from my freelancer experiment

If I found someone I really wanted to work with and they were on another freelancer website, I negotiated a specific rate to make sure they jump on board and work with me on my favourite websites, instead of sending threads of emails and Paypal payments getting lost in space. More efficient for me, more cost-effective for them.

I added old projects and testimonials to my profile. Social proof kiddos. If you learnt to write a smashing sales page, it won’t be hard to create a wow-inducing profile.

I linked my profile straight from my website. I am not a fan of juggling on various social platforms to market myself, so I did not sign up for every freelance website under the sun. Thanks, but no thanks. The ‘putting your eggs in one basket’ rule still stands.

My three favourite freelance websites

With over 1.5 million clients, Upwork offers something for every type of freelancer. I like as it caters for both short- and long-term projects, hourly or per-project work and expert-level and entry-level engagements. It will require you to apply for a minimum of 5/8 jobs per week at first, but the more you get accustomed with writing compelling pitches, the easier the whole process will become.

Elanceremoves a lot of the hassle that comes with freelancing. One of the biggest platforms, it surely has more competition from the start. I am not the biggest fan of their design. You’ll be able to make a profile right away including payment protection – a personal favourite of mine.

THE quintessential freelancer platform, Freelanceradds a bit of spice to its hiring process by allowing you to compete with other freelancers in contests to prove your skills. Despite being a bit “too much” for me (especially its job feed), I found that it can be a great platform for more involved projects.

Hubstaff Talent is a completely free platform where freelancers and businesses can connect, there are no fees or markups associated with using their website. Once a freelancer creates a profile, businesses will be able to contact them directly – no middlemen involved. Freelancers can also apply for jobs on the Hubstaff Talent Remote Job Board.

Interested to learn more about freelancing? Don’t forget to join us on Saturday.